


Fragrance of Dark Coffee

by Leonidas1754



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi doesn't emotion well, Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Bar, M/M, No Phantom Thieves AU, Singer!Mishima, Soulmate AU, no one dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 03:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16653139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonidas1754/pseuds/Leonidas1754
Summary: In this world, if you don't meet your soulmate before you turn 21, you die.Akechi sits in a bar, just before midnight on June 1st, listening to a beautiful singer, drinking halfway decent alcohol, and waiting to die. To his surprise, he doesn't.





	Fragrance of Dark Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> This got a lot darker than I thought it would. Still, happy ending. Whoooo.

Mishima Yuuki stood in on a stage in a small bar and sang.

Akechi rested his chin in his hand against the counter, watching the performer on stage. He knew the singer’s name from it being announced, and he seemed familiar to Akechi, to a point. But more importantly, his voice was smoother than honey and just as sweet as he sang what Akechi could only identify as some sort of jazz.

This bar had the best alcohol that Akechi could find without being horribly overpriced, so he did like to go in the evenings after especially stressful days. He found himself coming more and more, though, as this singer began performing at the bar. Something about him just drew Akechi in, lulling him into a pleasant calm.

The bartender liked to jokingly call Mishima a mockingbird, plain but with a beautiful voice. Akechi had to disagree. Sure, Mishima wasn’t the most striking or attention-grabbing, but Akechi didn’t feel that was a bad thing. He had lovely pale skin and dark hair that looked quite soft. Akechi had to admit he wanted to try running his fingers through it, but it wasn’t as if he’d ever get the chance.

Tonight was his last night, after all.

Akechi sighed softly as he turned back to the bartender. “One more, please,” he said just above the music.

The bartender nodded before taking the shot glass, refilling it. “... What’s on your mind, kid? You’ve been coming here more and more often, ‘m starting to worry you might be becomin’ an alcoholic.”

Akechi shrugged, swirling a finger around the rim of the glass. “I suppose it wouldn’t matter if I did. I’m about to die anyways. I suppose I just want it to be with a pleasant experience.”

“Ah…” Understanding dawned on the bartender’s face, and he shook his head. “You still have time, if you’re alive, you know. You should be out looking for them, not hanging around here.”

Akechi laughed a bit bitterly. “Please. Even if I did meet them… I’ve never formed a meaningful connection in my life. I’m rather broken, and I don’t think even my soulmate could change that.”

Akechi used to love the idea of having a soulmate. Someone out there, perfect for him, to share his life with. He never really minded the looming threat, that if you didn’t find your soulmate before you turned twenty-one, you died. After all, it was so rare that someone died due to not finding their soulmate. It was meant to be, written in the stars, that the two would find one another and live happily ever after. But then Akechi grew up, and he realized how cold and unfeeling the world was, and how broken a person he’d become. Screwed over by his birth father and a mother who refused to live without her soulmate, tossed around in foster homes and eventually ending up under the lights of fame as a child prodigy of a detective. While it had gotten him more attention, it had also alienated him even more, never being able to trust if anyone actually cared about him or not.

The bartender sighed and shook his head. “How much time you got left?”

Akechi checked his watch. “... Ten minutes, it seems.”

“Shit kid, your birthday is tomorrow?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, I’ll be leaving here in just a few moments. I’d rather not leave you with a body, after all.”

The bartender shook his head once more. “Nah, it’s fine. You like the guy’s singing, right? Just… Don’t worry about it.”

Akechi smiled softly, chuckling. “I appreciate that. I suppose there are worse ways to die, than here, listening to him.” He turned back towards the stage, letting the singer’s voice wash over him again as time ticked on.

He lifted the shot glass and downed it, letting the burn in his throat seep into him. There were definitely worse ways to die than sitting in a warm, lonely bar listening to a singer whose voice felt like home. Still, he couldn’t help but be aware of the heartbeat pounding in his chest, fearful and anxious of its inevitable stop. Akechi counted the seconds in aching beats as Mishima’s current song wound to a close. 

Then he stood, walking up to the stage and waved for Mishima’s attention. “I hope this doesn’t seem too strange, but would you humor a request?”

Mishima’s eyes widened, a strange look of recognition in them. Then again, maybe it wasn’t strange, with how often Akechi had been here, sitting at the bar. “O-Oh, sure, did you have something in mind?”

“Do you know the Fragrance of Dark Coffee?” Akechi asked.

Mishima giggled. “Yes, I know it. Never thought someone would request that.”

Akechi shrugged, a small smile on his lips. “What can I say, it’s a guilty pleasure.” He nodded and turned, walking back to his seat and making himself comfortable.

Mishima soon began to sing, warm voice flowing over Akechi. Akechi closed his eyes with a soft smile, resting his chin in his hands. He counted beats, song and heart, flowing together in harmony.

If he couldn’t have a soulmate, Akechi could make that lovely, soothing voice do.

The next thing he knew, he was being shaken awake, the familiar voice of the bartender calling out to him. “Oi, kid, wake up!”

Akechi jolted up with a gasp, eyes wide. He looked around wildly, confused for a long moment before he focused on the bartender again. “I…”

The bartender raised a brow. “Before you ask, I’m not dead. And neither are you, by the looks of it. Are you sure you got the day right?”

Akechi reached up, running a hand through his hair as he checked his phone. “No, I… I know it’s right,” he said. Indeed, it was five past midnight, June the Second. Akechi was officially twenty-one.

He should be dead.

“I don’t understand…” Akechi murmured, looking up again.

The bartender raised a brow. “Maybe you already met the person. Though usually you know it. I mean, you feel pretty drawn towards them and shit, it’s hard to miss.”

Akechi shrugged helplessly. “I’ve met plenty of people in passing that I never even knew the name of. It… could be anyone, really.”

And wasn’t that just his luck. He wasn’t dead, and instead, was hit with the knowledge that he’d somehow met his soulmate before but had never- and probably would never- get the chance to know who they were.

“You look like you need another drink,” the bartender said, passing him another shot glass. “You gonna be alright?”

Akechi snorted. “I doubt it.” He downed the shot before rubbing his temples.

Out of the corner of his eye, though, Akechi saw someone sit beside him, and he turned to see Mishima smiling softly at him. “Hey.”

“... Hey,” Akechi replied. He didn’t really have much else to say. He’d woken up alive and was already half drunk, which wasn’t exactly conducive to eloquence.

“Been a long day? I saw you fell asleep,” Mishima said with a soft laugh. “You look pretty stressed, too.”

“I… Yes, it’s been… Today’s my birthday,” Akechi blurted out. “I thought I’d… die.”

Mishima’s eyes widened. “Oh god… W-Well I’m really, really glad you came up and requested that song, then, I… I would’ve been too late.”

“Huh?” Akechi blinked. Requesting… “Why..?”

Mishima fumbled with his fingers against the bar countertop. “W-Well, I’ve always wanted to talk to you, since I the first time I saw you here, but I’m just… Having the courage to perform is a lot different than having the courage to talk to people, you know? Even if that person is your soulmate. Especially if, I guess.”

Akechi froze. On the other side of the bar, he could see the bartender putting the pieces together and hide a laugh behind his hand, though thankfully, Mishima didn’t seem to notice. “You’re my… You’re my soulmate…” he said weakly, head spinning from more than just alcohol.

Mishima’s eyes widened. “Did you… Did you not know? I thought that was why you came up, because… Was I wrong?” His teeth caught his lower lip between them, and his brows furrowed low in obvious distress.

Akechi leaned forward, immediately feeling like he was going to pitch off the stool, but he managed to keep his balance. “No, I… I don’t know, I thought, I thought that I wouldn’t meet mine. But if you really are..?”

The bartender managed to get his laughing fit under control, returning with a grin. “Alright, alright, wait. Akechi-kun, why have you been coming here all this time?”

Akechi blinked at him in confusion. “Well the alcohol is good without being overpriced. And I like listening to you sing,” he said to Mishima this time. “You’ve got really, really nice voice, like… It feels warm and good.”

“So you’re telling me that all this time, you’ve been drawn to him, and you had no idea?” The bartender looked at Akechi incredulously. “You’ve been sitting here like a dead man and if you hadn’t requested the song you wanted to die listening to, you actually would have died.”

“In my defense,” Akechi said weakly, “I have… interpersonal issues.”

Mishima looked somewhere between concerned and amused. “Well… We can work on that together, if you want. I’m not the best at social things either, but… we’re soulmates, right? So it should work out, hopefully.”

Akechi couldn’t help the excited little smile that bubbled up, hope and happiness flourishing in his chest in spite of all his self-doubt. “Yea, that sounds kinda nice, actually.” He fumbled with his phone, opening it. “I’m a little… drunk. But tomorrow, maybe?”

Mishima giggled, the most adorable sound Akechi had ever heard. “Yea, sounds good. It’s late, anyways, we should get home.” Still, he gently took Akechi’s phone and put his number in, sending a text to himself and saving Akechi’s number. Then he handed it back, hopping up from the seat. “And… My name is Mishima. Mishima Yuuki,” he said, shifting a bit awkwardly, as if he didn’t know what to do, before holding out a hand to shake.

Akechi, in a moment of brilliance- or brilliant stupidity, it was hard to say- took his hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing the back of it. “Akechi Goro. See you tomorrow, Mishima-kun.”

Mishima flushed darkly before covering his face with one hand before scrambling out the door. Akechi watched after him with a soft glow in his chest.

He had a soulmate. An adorable songbird of a soulmate.

The bartender laughed and shook his head, taking the shot glass and walking towards the back. “Happy birthday, dumbass.”

Akechi sighed wistfully. “Thanks…”


End file.
